Bioclimatic classification of Isfahan province using multivariate statistical methods

Abstract

ABSTRACT:The purpose of the present study is to determine bioclimatic zones in Isfahan province using multivariate statistical method. Thirty-nine climatic variables, which were more important in plant ecological conditions (especially Artemisia sieberi and Artemisia aucheri that include more than half of rangeland surface in Isfahan province), were selected and investigated with factor analysis. Results of factor analysis showed the first three factors that explain 92.3% of total variance in selected variables were precipitation, temperature and radiation and wind with 41.91, 40.18 and 10.23% of variance, respectively. According to results and using hierarchical cluster analysis in Ward's method, bioclimatic classification in Isfahan province was performed and seven bioclimatic zones were found. In addition, to compare the results of this study with the other climatic classification methods, Isfahan province was classified by four traditional climatic classification methods (Koppen, Gaussen, Emberger and De Martonne) and its results were compared to climatic classification by multivariate statistical method. It showed that multivariate statistical method gives better classification in comparison with other methods. Beside that precipitation is the most important factor in vegetation distribution of humid and cold and sub-humid and cold regions in west and south parts of Isfahan province. In addition, temperature is the most important factor in vegetation distribution of hyper warm-arid and warm-arid climatic regions in eastern low elevation parts of province. Furthermore, dominant species were determined for each climatic region.

The role of sky view factor and urban street greenery in human thermal comfort and heat stress in a desert climate

“…Desert climates divide to hot desert climate (BWh-like Tucson (Arizona) and Cairo (Egypt)), and cold desert climate (BWk like central Iranian cities like Isfahan, and Santiago (Chile)). Yaghmaei et al (2009) studied the humanbiometeorological conditions of Isfahan province based on Koppen (2006) climate classification. These methods have been compared and a multivariate statistical method has been suggested.…”

Remote sensing‐based biological and nonbiological indices for evaluating desertification in Iran: Image versus field indices

“…Isfahan Province with 23 counties with an area of about 107,019 km 2 is located between 30° and 42 min to 34° and 27 min north latitude and 49° and 38 min to 55° and 32 min east longitude (Figure 1). The mean maximum and minimum temperature in this province are 35 and 5°C, respectively, the mean precipitation is 100 mm in the east and 450 mm in the west and the mean annual evaporation is 2,500 mm, and in general, it is considered as one of the arid and semiarid areas of Iran (Yaghmaei, Soltani, & Khodagholi, 2009). On‐the‐one‐hand, the existence of Zagros Mountains in the western part of the Province has prevented infiltration of moisture into central and eastern areas, and on the other hand, the existence of low and flat desert areas in the eastern part has affected a large part of the Province.…”

Unsustainability Syndrome—From Meteorological to Agricultural Drought in Arid and Semi-Arid Regions

“…A method designed by Emberger [49] is widely used for climate classification in climatology, hydrology, ecology, and bioclimatic analysis [50][51][52]. The method considers the two important climate parameters, precipitation and temperature:…”